MacRumors

Yesterday, 9to5Mac reported that an iPhone user running on T-Mobile's network had observed the curious phenomenon of 3G connectivity showing up on his device when in the immediate vicinity of the Moscone West convention center where Apple is holding its Worldwide Developers Conference next week. The user, who frequently passes by the convention center, had never seen 3G network support there before.

iPhone users on T-Mobile USA have historically been limited to the carrier's slower EDGE network due to frequency incompatibility, but late last year the carrier began refarming its spectrum in select areas to move 3G service over to the 1900 MHz frequency band compatible with the iPhone. Just one month ago, T-Mobile announced that it would be taking the initiative nationwide, making the carrier ready for the iPhone by the end of 2012.

In response to the observation of 1900 MHz 3G service showing up specifically at Moscone West to beef up service for its users and speculation that Apple could make some sort of announcement about a T-Mobile iPhone at the event, the carrier issued a statement acknowledging the testing but calling its alignment with Apple's WWDC keynote "coincidental".

While upgrading coverage inside the West side of the Moscone Center, T-Mobile has also deployed 4G HSPA+ service in the 1900 MHz band to test the live network on a small scale. As part of the company’s previously announced $4 billion network modernization effort, T-Mobile plans to launch 4G HSPA+ service in the 1900 MHz band in a large number of markets by the end of the year, which will make our 4G network compatible with a broader range of devices, including the iPhone.

NOTE: The time and location of this test is just coincidental.

T-Mobile is the only one of the four major U.S. carriers to not offer the iPhone, due to its current frequency incompatibility, and the carrier has been increasingly disadvantaged as even small regional carriers and prepaid networks have begun rolling out the device to an increasing number of customers.

Following up on its report from last week claiming that Apple will show off the operating system for its future television set product at next week's Worldwide Developers Conference, BGR now briefly reports that Apple will be using the event to introduce a new software development kit (SDK) to allow third-party developers to build apps for the Apple TV.

We have heard from a trusted source that Apple will be introducing a TV SDK at WWDC next week. This would enable third-party developers to create software for Apple’s TV products.

The report reveals no other details on Apple plans, but we do note that Steve Jobs himself admitted just as the revised Apple TV was launching in September 2010 that the company could open an App Store for the Apple TV "when the time is right".

With rumors of an Apple television set continuing to build, Apple may now consider the time right to begin allowing developers to build apps for the existing Apple TV set-top box ahead of the company's larger entry into the market.

Bloomberg Businessweek publishes a new profile of Phil Schiller, Apple senior vice president of marketing who served for years as Steve Jobs' right-hand man regarding the company's public presentations and comments, but who has also been intimately involved in product development and positioning.

He helped Apple’s late CEO work through the meat-and-potatoes of creating new products: Defining target markets, determining technical specs, setting prices. It was Schiller who came up with the spin-wheel interface on the original iPod, and he was a champion of the iPad when other executives questioned its potential. “Because Phil’s title is marketing, people believe he’s focused on what’s on the billboards,” says Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray (PJC). “He’s much more important than people give him credit for.”

The profile notes that while Schiller and Jobs appeared vastly different in their personal lives and interests, the two were always on the same wavelength with regard to Apple's plans, earning Schiller the internal nickname of "Mini-Me". Like Jobs, Schiller has also been known to be ruthless in shooting down ideas considered not good enough for Apple to pursue, earning him another nickname of "Dr. No".

Schiller is one of the key executives responsible for helping Apple maintain its momentum as it transitions away from Jobs' influence, and he knows that he will be one of those held most acutely responsible if Apple's future products fall short.

Schiller shares many of Jobs’s passions and impulses. The big question is how well he can channel them into new ideas and products. Four former Apple managers say many consider him overly controlling and worry that he lacks the bold creative instincts needed to maintain Apple’s edge. Particularly in his expanded marketing role, some fear he will be a more conventional leader, prone to hyping products in ways that tarnish Apple’s hard-won brand loyalty.

With the iPad now over two years old and experiencing booming growth, the pressure is on Apple to set the stage for its next breakthrough product, which some believe to be television. But regardless of Apple's plans, Schiller will be playing a key role in nurturing Apple's progress and serving as a public face for Apple to help spread its message.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today issued a new report outlining his belief that Apple's thinner, Retina-equipped Mac notebook will arrive next week as a new model, referring to the machine simply as a "MacBook". Kuo believes that this MacBook will be offered alongside upgraded versions of the existing 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models, with Apple being reluctant to do away with the current 13-inch design in particular due to its massive popularity.

We expect Apple (US) to unveil a new MacBook series independent from the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro lines at Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June. We expect the new MacBook to have the following features:

(1) Basic 13” model to be priced at US$1,199
(2) No disc drive
(3) To come in both SSD and HDD
(4) Lighter and slimmer than MacBook Pro, with equal computing power
(5) Retinal display with tapered edge, larger battery capacity

Kuo also reiterates his earlier claims that Apple will discontinue the 17-inch MacBook Pro this year, citing estimates that the model makes up only 1% of Apple's notebook sales.

The introduction of this new "MacBook" model would leave Apple with a lineup of six notebooks, although Kuo predicts that issues with display yield and heat dissipation will push the release of the 13-inch MacBook back until August, leaving only the 15-inch model to make its debut next week.

We should note that this configuration of models is not accounted for in our speculation on part numbers that leaked earlier this week, but we did receive an unconfirmed tip of a different configuration that would match up with Kuo's claims fairly closely. In that scenario, new iMacs are not accounted for in the list and the J30/J31 model numbers represent updated 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models while the D2 model represents this new Retina-equipped 15-inch MacBook.

Kuo believes that Apple will wait until next year to re-simplify its notebook lines with Intel's Haswell platform, at which point the company will merge the MacBook Pro and this new MacBook model, leaving a set of four models: 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Airs and 13-inch and 15-inch MacBooks.

We do find Kuo's claims to be somewhat difficult to believe, as we fail to see how this new "MacBook" model is substantially different in performance from the MacBook Pro and thus do not see why users would be interested in a non-Retina MacBook Pro given the existence of this new MacBook line. Given the scenario outlined by Kuo, the only "advantage" of the thicker MacBook Pro would be an included optical drive, but users are finding such a feature to be increasingly unnecessary and easily replaceable by digital downloads such as through the Mac App Store, direct file transfers, and cloud-based storage, with an external optical drive available to be connected only on the rare occasions when necessary.

Still, Kuo has offered accurate information on Apple's notebook plans in the past, being the first to outlined the MacBook Air redesign that included the new 11-inch model, and thus we feel that his claims are worth some consideration and discussion.

As noted by The Next Web, Apple late yesterday approved an update to the Mac app FolderWatch [Mac App Store] that lists "Retina graphics" as one of the changes.

The report suggests that the application's developer may possibly have been given advance notice of Retina Mac displays by Apple, but we believe that to be unlikely and assume that the developer included the improved graphics based on circulating rumors and Apple's existing HiDPI modes quietly built into its recent operating system versions. Supporting the latter speculation, the developer issued a Tweet earlier today indicating that the "Retina" claim simply refers to the HiDPI mode already seen in OS X.

Still, Apple approved the update with "Retina graphics" listed as the first bullet point in the "What's new" section regarding the update, suggesting that the mention was at least seen by reviewers who approved the update as it was submitted. Consequently, the move is gaining significant attention as a potential signal from Apple itself that Retina-capable Macs are on their way next week.

Of course, it is unlikely that even Apple's Mac App Store reviewers have been briefed on upcoming Mac capabilities, so we hesitate to make too much of the news at this point.

Apple is expected to introduce a Retina 15-inch MacBook Pro at a minimum next week, with the feature expected to make its way into Apple's other display-equipped Mac models over time.

Bryce Haymond of Blackpool Creative has created a set of high resolution 3D renderings of the "iPhone 5" based on the circulating part leaks and diagrams.

There’s been quite a bit of hype recently in the Apple universe over the imminent announcement of a new iPhone, or rather the new iPhone (aka iPhone 5). Many of the biggest media outlets have already published photos and videos of “leaked” parts that are supposedly from the iPhone 5 as it makes its way into the manufacturing phase at Apple’s suppliers. I thought it would be fun to piece together these fragments to see what the iPhone 5 might look like when Apple makes the big announcement

Besides the video below, he's also created a zip of 76 high resolution images for download.

The numerous part leaks have fueled interest in this longer 4" screen iPhone design. Last year, early 3rd party case designs had suggested an even more dramatic redesign, but that design never came to pass.

Apple will be taking the stage at WWDC next week, but most observers don't expect Apple to unveil the new iPhone at WWDC. The new iPhone is not expected to be introduced until the fall (September/October).

As noted by TechCrunch, some users of Facebook's app for iOS have noticed the social network's new "App Center" tab showing up in the navigation menu within the app. The feature is designed as a one-stop destination for app discovery on a variety of platforms, with recommendations based on Facebook's editors' selections and personalized by drawing from the usage of each person's friends.

Similar to the interfaces that the company showed off in early May when it announced the App Center plans, you can see a left-hand navigation feature within Facebook’s feature-heavy iOS app. Apps with unread notifications appear in the top section. If you click through, you see the App Center (and you’ll note that the logo in the screenshot also matches what Facebook has previously released).

Within the app center, a "Social Picks" tab offers apps based on what the user's friends have used, while a "Top Apps" tab contains picks from Facebook's editors as determined by quality and popularity. The listings include iOS, Android, HTML5, and desktop apps, with users able to click directly through to the App Store or other marketplaces to download apps.

The Next Web argues that the addition of App Center will be a major boost for Apple, helping quality apps to surface from among Facebook's hundreds of millions of users and those top apps to be easily accessible to other users.

By launching this App Center, Facebook is actually doing Apple a gigantic favor in two regards. First, it will become a serious point of distribution for Apple developers, secondarily it will be a great avenue to talk Facebook developers into building iOS apps if they haven’t so far. [...]

Facebook’s App Center won’t be clouded by anything other than actual data and usage. Imagine that, apps will actually bubble up to the top based on how often people engage with them.

After several years of what has appeared to be a tenuous relationship between Apple and Facebook, it certainly appears that the two companies are now moving to work more closely together. At the D10 conference late last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted at Facebook integration and perhaps other announcements in that vein, urging users to "stay tuned".

For us, we want to provide customers simple and elegant ways to do the things they want to do. Facebook has hundreds of millions of customers. So, anyone that has an iPhone or iPad, we want them to have the best experience with Facebook on those platforms. So stay tuned.

Just a few days after Cook's comments, it was reported that Apple will indeed show off Facebook integration in iOS 6 at next week's Worldwide Developers Conference, making it much easier for users to post photos, status updates, and other content to the social network from within iOS.

With Facebook also feeding back into the App Store through its own App Center on iOS, it certainly seems that the companies are moving quickly to solidify their relationship for their mutual benefit and to the benefit of the millions of users who rely on both Apple devices and Facebook's social network.

Flurry Analytics today released a new report highlighting developer interest in iOS and Android as measured by downloads of Flurry's tools for integrating analytics into apps. With a new high of over 18,000 SDK downloads by developers during the first quarter of 2012, Flurry found that iOS continues to hold a substantial lead over Android with 69% of those downloads being for iOS.

For every 10 apps that developers build, roughly 7 are for iOS. While Google made some gains in Q1 2012, edging up to over 30% for the first time in a year, we believe this is largely due to seasonality, as Apple traditionally experiences a spike in developer support leading up to the holiday season. Apple’s business has more observable seasonality.

Flurry points to Apple's dominance in the tablet market as one significant driver of its popularity with developers, with Flurry's numbers showing that the iPad accounted for 88% of all user sessions on tablets during the first five months of 2012. Samsung's Galaxy Tab placed second with just 9% of the market with Amazon's Kindle Fire representing 3%.

Flurry also offers data on fragmentation within the Android ecosystem, illustrating how both multitude of devices and operating system versions leads to developers having to design their apps to be compatible with an increasingly complex variety of user setups.

Looking at revenue generation, Flurry calculates that for every dollar of revenue per active user generated on iOS, a developer can only expect to earn 24 cents on Android, demonstrating the main reason why developers continue to choose iOS as their first priority for app development.

At the end of the day, developers run businesses, and businesses seek out markets where revenue opportunities are highest and the cost of building and distributing is lowest. In short, Android delivers less gain and more pain than iOS, which we believe is the key reason 7 out of every 10 apps built in the new economy are for iOS instead of Android.

Flurry's report comes as TechCrunch reminds readers of Google Chairman Eric Schmidt's claim from December stating that within six months most developers would choose to develop for Android as their first priority. With six months having passed and developers clearly still choosing iOS first, TechCrunch reaches a similar conclusion that fragmentation, particularly on the operating system side, has been a major contribution to Android app development falling short of Schmidt's predictions.

Most notably, seven months after the launch of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, Google's own data reveals that only 7.1% of Android phones are running the latest operating system, a number in line with that observed by Flurry. In contrast, iOS 5 is reported to be installed on 75-80% of active devices as measured from a sample of downloads from the popular Audiobooks application.

In line with rumors from earlier this week, Virgin Mobile USA today announced that it will begin offering the iPhone on June 29. Virgin Mobile USA is a prepaid brand operated by Sprint.

Notably, Virgin Mobile will be offering service plans for as low as $30 per month with no commitment when customers sign up for automatic payments.

Virgin Mobile's Beyond Talk unlimited data and messaging plans for iPhone start at $35 per month for access to Sprint's Nationwide Network, and customers can receive a $5 per-month plan discount when they register for automatic monthly payments with a credit card, debit card or PayPal account, making iPhone available for as low as $30 per month. Customers can also use their iPhone as a mobile hotspot through Virgin Mobile for an additional $15 per month.

Unlike Cricket, which announced last week that it will begin offering the iPhone on a prepaid basis on June 22, Virgin is not offering any subsidy on iPhone hardware, with the 8 GB iPhone 4 being priced at $549 and the 16 GB iPhone 4S coming in a $649.

Cricket is offering the iPhone for $150 less, but its service plan consists solely of a $55/month offering with unlimited talk, text, and data. With Virgin Mobile offering plans for as low as $30, low-use customers can make up that hardware price differential in six months of service.

All three of Virgin Mobile's plans include unlimited texting and data (throttled after 2.5 GB), with voice minutes being the differentiating factor. With the $5 discount for automatic payments, Virgin Mobile's plans are priced at $30 (300 minutes), $40 (1200 minutes), and $50 (unlimited minutes).

Virgin Mobile will offer the iPhone through its website and at RadioShack, Best Buy, and other select retailers.

Algoriddim has released vjay their realtime video mixing app for iPad. We previewed the app earlier this week.

Similar to how djay works, vjay allows you to mix/fade between two video clips and apply real time effects to the output. Due to the heavy processing required to decode and mix two video streams, the app only works on the iPad 2 or the new iPad.

Video clips can be full music videos, such as those downloaded from the iTunes store, or they can be your own personal video clips. Audio can either be the original video audio or intermingled with songs your own music library. Both video and audio tracks can be swapped out independently at any time.

A new video shows off some of the features:

The focus of the app is on these real time performances and mixes which can be saved and shared. vjay is available for a limited time price of $9.99 and requires an iPad 2 or the new iPad. [Direct Link]

Cydiablog points to a new hands on video with the same "iPhone 5" parts that have been circulating. The new video was posted by part supply company eTradeSupply.

The new video is not especially more revealing, but does show the backplate in a number of different angles. The narrator also compares it directly to the iPhone 4, showing the relative size. Other features noted:

- Smaller dock port
- Bottom headphone jack
- SIM card slot smaller
- iPhone 5 is thinner than iPhone 4S (though no screen on the iPhone 5)

A few times a year, MacRumors partners with MacUpdate to promote their Mac application bundle deal.

Their latest bundle delivers at 11 Mac applications for $49.99 (a $457 value if all purchased separately). Notably, it includes Parallels Desktop 7, a popular virtualization tool that allows users to run Windows on their Mac.

The full bundle includes (retail value in parenthesis):

- Parallels Desktop 7 ($79.99) - Run Windows and Linux apps alongside Mac OS X.
- ScreenFlow 3 ($99.99) - Screencasting software allowing you to record your screen.
- Civilization V ($39.99) - A turn-based game to lead a civilization through time.
- Jaksta ($49.99) - Record virtually any audio or video stream from the Web.
- Espionage 3 ($19.99) - Easily encrypt and password protect individual files or folders
- Speed Download 5 ($25.00) - Boost your file transfers so they take full advantage of your Internet connection.
- Attachment Tamer 3 ($14.99) - Apple Mail add-on that gives you enhanced control over email attachments.
- KeyCue 6 ($28.00) - Learn and discover keyboard shortcuts
- A Better Finder Rename 9 ($19.95) - Batch rename dozens, hundreds, or thousands of files.
- My Living Desktop 5 ($29.95) - Turn your Mac's desktop picture into a high-definition video.

The first 10,000 buyers also get BusyCal ($49.99 value).

All apps together are being sold for $49.99 until June 20th. MacRumors is a promotional partner with MacUpdate. Bundle sales through these links benefit MacRumors financially, and provide a way for readers to directly support this site.

In a last minute press conference, Google today shared "the next dimension" of Google Maps. The presentation, which some felt was underwhelming from a product perspective, included a lot of history around the Google Earth, Maps and Street View products, as well as a peek at what's to come.

The announcements are particularly significant with credible rumors that Apple will be dropping Google Maps as the native maps application in iOS, in favor of its own solution at WWDC next week.

The first big announcement was related to the display of 3D buildings in Google Earth. Google is using airplanes along with a Google-designed system to photograph cities and make a 3D map of buildings. It appears to be a very similar process to the one used by C3 Technologies, a company that Apple purchased last year. The Verge offers more details on how it works:

To make the images, Google uses planes to take images at 45-degrees from four different angles — flying them in a tightly-controlled pattern with plenty of overlap. Google builds the 3D model off of these many images, using algorithms to create the shape and color of buildings. The process is "fully automated," building the 3D images without any human interactions. The system is intelligent enough to know when a certain image is blocked or shadowed, for example. The company hopes to combine the 2D mapping and vector data with the 3D images to perhaps someday provide vertical location information.

Aside from the Google Earth developments -- which will be coming to the iOS version of Google Earth in the coming weeks -- Google also unveiled new technologies for Street View and offline viewing for Google Maps on Android.

Google executives also took questions from the audience. Brian McClendon, VP of Engineering for Google Maps, said Google was "really proud of Google Maps" and that the company was "committed to offering those services on all platforms". Based on these statements, it seems likely Google will offer a standalone iOS app for Google Maps even if Apple chooses to implement its own mapping solution in the native iOS Maps app, much like it does for the existing Google Earth app.

In a new research note, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reports that Apple will be making significant improvements to both front and rear cameras on the next-generation iPhone, advances driven by a desire to decrease the thickness of the device and to improve compatibility with a new 16:9 display.

According to Kuo, the rear camera on the iPhone will remain at 8 megapixels, but the aperture will be increased from f/2.4 to f/2.2 in order to reduce camera module height by nearly 0.5 mm.

[A] number of components have required a slim-down. The component that will undergo the most dramatic make-over is the rear camera. Our research shows that iPhone 5 will feature the first-ever slimmed rear camera of all iPhones, in an effort to deliver an ultra-slim iPhone 5.

Meanwhile, to enhance photography effects, iPhone 5’s rear camera will feature a larger f/2.2 aperture than iPhone 4S’s f/2.4. However, larger aperture means more noises. In addition, the reduced thickness means even greater challenges for lens design and assembly, as not only the lens, but also the voice coil motor (VCM) and CMOS image sensor (CIS) need to be slimmer. Finally, the compact camera module (CCM) suppler, responsible for the terminal assembly, will be confronted by assembly yield.

As for the front-facing camera, Kuo argues that Apple's move to a 16:9 display will drive a significant boost to HD quality for the front camera. HD offers the same 16:9 aspect ratio as the new display, as opposed to the 4:3 aspect ratio of the current VGA-quality FaceTime camera, and Apple will likely want to take full advantage of the device's new screen. In addition, moving the FaceTime camera to above the earpiece will allow for more centered images, improving the user experience.

The report also indicates that Apple is adopting flip-chip packing for the new front-facing camera, a process that will result in a thinner assembly and simplify lens production by moving the blue glass filter to the camera module itself.

Kuo has offered accurate information on a number of occasions in the past, relying on sources within Apple's supply chain to piece together Apple's product plans.